ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION. 31 



A seventh and most important use is in the manufacture of pafeb. 

 With this brief enumeration of some 01 the ways in which fibers are 

 employed by man the following economic classification, relating to the 



utility of liber and fibrous substances, is presented: 



A. Spinning fibers. 



1. Fal 



Fibers of the first rank, for spinning and weaving into fine and coarse 

 texrnres for wearing apparel, domestic use, or house furnishing 



and d .. and for awnings, sails, etc. The commercial forms 



are cotton, flax, ramie, hemp, p . and New Zealand flax. 



Fibers of the second rank, used for burlap or gunny, cotton bagging, 

 woven mattings and door coverings, and oth< r coarse nses 

 mercial examples are jute and coil 



2. y i 



Lace libers, which are cotton, riax. ramie, agave, etc. 

 Coarse netting fibers, for all forms of nets, and for hammocks. 

 I ommercial forms: Cotton, dax. ramie. New Zealand flax, agave, 



The native netting fibers are legion, and include the fibers 



derived from tree basts, palms, etc. 



3. ' ".: 



(a) Fine spun threads and yarns other than for weaving ; cords, lines, and 

 twines all of the commercial fabric fibers, sunn, Mauritius 

 bow-string hemps. New Zealand flax, and the so-called commercial 

 hard fibers, coir, manila and sisal hemps, and other forms : the 

 nsh lines made from seaweed. 

 Ropes and cables. (Chiefly common hemp, sisal and manila hemps, 

 when produced commercially. In native manufactures made from 

 palm fiber, yuccas, and many other plants. 



B. Tie material rougktwisteA 



Very coarse material, such as stripped palm leaves, the peeled bark of 

 trees, and other coarse growths used without preparation, and 

 employed in the construction of huts, fences, as emergency cord- 

 age, and sometimes as cables for •• rope bridges.*' with other native 

 uses too n.imerous to mention. 



C. ^Natural texttkes. 



1. Tret basts, with tough inie bers. 



(a) Substitutes for cloth, prepared by simple stripping and pounding. 



Examples: The Tappa or Kapa cloth of the Pacific islands: the 



Dam : South American tribes/ 



Lace barks. The best example is the bast from Lagetta lintearia, 



of Jamaica, which has been used for cravats, frills, rufries. etc.. 



and likewise as thongs and whips. 



2. T eribbt layer basts, extracted in thin, smooth-surfaced, dexible strips 



or sheets. Examples: The Cuba bast that is employed commer- 

 cially as a millinery material, plain and dyed in colors; cigarette 

 basts for wrappers. 

 8. Interlacing >- 



Pertaining to leaves and leaf stems of palms, such as the hbrous 

 sheaths found at the bases of the leafstalks of the cocoanut. 

 yb) Pertaining to dower buds. The natural caps or hats derived from 

 several species oi palms. 



Xote. — The separated rilaments of these cloth substitutes, -heet 

 or ribbon basts, etc.. are also employed, by twisting, as cordage. 



